Sizing up the Field to be NFC East MVP

A pair of publishers for SI's Fan Nation had some fun with the topic, and did you know the last player to win the overall league MVP from the division came nearly 30 years ago?

It’s no secret that the NFC East has wallowed in mediocrity for several years now.

Mediocrity may even be too kind of a word.

The division has, however, produced two Super Bowl champions in the past 10 years – the Eagles in 2017 and the Giants in 2012.

What it hasn’t had since 1993 is an MVP. The last player from the NFC East to do it was Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith, who is now in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Players from 16 different teams have won the award since Smith and the NFC East accomplished it.

It’s difficult to win the award as anything other than a quarterback, and, granted, it’s difficult for any quarterback to do with the likes of Aaron Rodgers still going strong. The Packers QB has won the award each of the past two seasons and has four MVP trophies in his trophy case overall.

With that in mind, just focus on the NFC East.

Who is the preseason favorite to be the MVP of the division?

My SI Fan Nation colleague Patricia Traina, who is the publisher of Giants Country, gave our thoughts recently and you can watch the video for our takes.

Here are my five candidates:

EAGLES

Jalen Hurts. It would certainly be stunning if the third-year quarterback and soon-to-be second-year starter comes away with this award.

Not so much because he doesn’t have a skill set that could make it happen, but the Eagles have never had a player win an MVP award since it’s been given out dating back to 1957.

Hurts sometimes gets compared to Ravens QB Lamar Jackson, who won the 2019 MVP after a fantastic season in which he threw for3,127 yards, 36 touchdowns and nine interceptions, and ran for 1,206 yards and seven scores.

An awful lot would have to go right for Hurts to do it, but he has the talent around him to succeed.

Still, he’s a long shot.

A.J. Brown. The WR could and perhaps should top 1,000 yards and maybe come close to 10 touchdowns. A wide receiver, however, has never won MVP because all the credit goes to the quarterback for whatever numbers his top pass-catcher puts up.

He is a very unlikely candidate, but, hey, there’s a first time for everything.

GIANTS

Saquon Barkley. His odds may be better than both Hurts and Brown, but you have to go back to 2012 to find the last time a RB won the award. That was the Vikings’ Adrian Peterson, who had to rush for more than 2,000 yards to do it.

A year removed from an ACL repair, Barkley might be able to do it and it would come at a good time since this is the final year of his rookie contract.

You have to go back to 1986 to find the last Giants player to win the award, and that was LB Lawrence Taylor. New York also had quarterback Y.A. Title win it in 1963.

COMMANDERS

Carson Wentz. I know, I know, no way, right? Everybody keeps waiting for 2017 to happen again when Wentz would have likely been the first Eagles player to ever be the league MVP until his knee injury. It may never happen again. Then again…

Washington has had three former MVPs – QB Joe Theismann (1983), kicker Mark Moseley (1982) - yes, a kicker - and RB Larry Brown (1972).

COWBOYS

Dak Prescott. He’s my pick for preseason NFC East MVP. The QB may even find a way to win the league MVP. He’s a year removed from a serious ankle injury and even in his first year back from it, he threw for 37 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions with a 68.8 completion percentage.

Weirdly enough, Smith is the lone MVP in Dallas history.

Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglesmaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.